Barcelona's Haaland Pursuit: Steve McManaman Weighs In
Steve McManaman can see why the Erling Haaland-to-Barcelona story refuses to die. He just isn’t convinced it adds up.
Speaking to GOAL on behalf of ESPN on Disney+, the former Manchester City winger was asked if Barcelona’s long-term plan could be to lure the Norwegian away from the Etihad. He paused on the romance of the idea, then cut straight to the practicalities.
“Maybe,” he said. “Everybody's got this mythical thing that Erling wants to play in Spain, don't they. I mean whether Barcelona could even afford Erling is another question, so maybe they are playing the long game, I have no idea.”
Haaland, he pointed out, doesn’t look like a man plotting an imminent escape.
“Erling seems very, very happy at City – signed a huge long-term contract last year didn't he.”
If Barcelona really are dreaming of Haaland, they’re doing it while walking a tightrope. McManaman still sees a squad that, for all its firepower, looks light in one key area.
“I thought they were quite short up front last year and they went and won the league quite comfortably,” he said. “Robert's gone, Ferran's gone, who is their centre-forward this year?”
He ran through the options and saw pace, flair, goals – but not that classic penalty-box focal point.
“I think [Karim] Adeyemi’s not really an out-and-out number nine, he's more of a typical speedster isn't he, you've got Raphinha, you've got [Anthony] Gordon, you've got Lamine [Yamal].”
The pattern, for him, is familiar. Barcelona look vulnerable on paper. On the pitch, they rip that paper up.
“Whenever I looked at Barcelona last year they did the same, the year before they did the same. I looked at various areas and thought they look short there, they look short there, and then they go and obliterate everybody.”
Eric Garcia summed it up. A player many pigeonholed as a centre-back suddenly became a tactical Swiss army knife.
“I look at Eric Garcia, he played about four or five positions last year and I'm thinking to myself ‘can he play there, can he play there,’ and actually he can, he can play bloody everywhere!”
They keep finding answers from within. Still, McManaman returns to that same nagging thought.
“So they continue to surprise me, but I'm the same, I still think they need a positional number nine. Whether they have one in La Masia, coming up as a youngster who can do a job for you for maybe 10-15 games is another thing.”
While Real Madrid have moved to refresh their own attacking options – “Madrid have brought [Carlos] Espi, scored a few goals already, again a different type of player” – Barcelona seem ready to spread the burden across their wide forwards and runners.
“You know Lamine will get 20 if he stays fit, Raphinha will get another 25 if he stays fit, and Adeyemi I bet he'll get 20, and Gordon will, if he plays enough games, get 20 goals. They tend to spread it around a little bit more evenly than Real Madrid.”
So the equation is clear. Barcelona can chase the fantasy of Haaland, trust La Masia to produce the next great No.9, or double down on a shared scoring model that keeps proving people wrong. How long can they keep winning that way before the temptation of a true centre-forward becomes impossible to ignore?
